Fight against blight beefed up

Lesley Conn

Friday

Dec 26, 2008 at 11:30 PM

Savannah's battle against blight is getting new resources.

To help deal with problems involving rental properties, city officials have appointed a three-member Property Maintenance Board. Its members will hear complaints brought under the new Derelict Rental Property ordinance, which the City Council approved in August.

City administrative staff members have been reviewing some of the most problematic cases of properties targeted by repeated complaints and, in the coming weeks, expect to present the first cases to the new board.

Plus, code enforcement officers will get help from a technology upgrade for their day-to-day efforts.

Officers who responded to past complaints had to call the office to have someone look up whether past complaints had been filed against a property owner. If no one was available, the officers had to return to the office to determine for themselves whether there were repeated violations.

A record of past violations would allow a code enforcement officer to issue a citation with stronger penalties than an initial complaint.

Inspectors now have portable electronic pads with wireless cards that allow them to access a property's history on the spot, said Bret Bell, the city's director of information.

Those efforts follow one of the most visible attacks on blight, what city officials call their list of 100 worst properties. Those are properties that have been identified to be repaired or demolished.

In October, the city began working on its third list.

As Kensington Park's community improvement coach, Pam Miller has been working with code enforcement officials in recent months.

"We've had a couple of places even here in Kensington Park that have been chronic eyesores, and it seemed there must be a lack of history for the situation to go on as long as it did go on," she said.

About two months ago, she and inspectors traveled the subdivision and found 39 violations.

"It only takes one or two properties to start a trend," she said.

Legal boost

City officials hope a new rental-property ordinance will give them added muscle in addressing lingering problems.

The ordinance defines a derelict property as one where a code official finds at least one maintenance, sanitation or building code violation or finds a utility service disconnected for more than 60 days. It also can include any finding of criminal activity on the property.

Rather than have cases go through Recorder's Court, they can be routed to the city's enforcement board.

Language added to the amendment allows a property owner to be cited for violations that put the health or safety of a third person at risk. The penalty would be up to $1,000 a day. The total penalty for violations that do not involve health or safety risks cannot exceed more than $1,000.

Fulfilling a need

Austin Dixon, a retired administrator with the city's Sanitation Department, is one of three new appointees to the Property Maintenance Board.

What made him come out of retirement?

"I've seen a need," he said. "There are overgrown, unkept lawns, plus a lot of trash in the street."

Dixon also notes that too many people are leaving trash cans at the curb all week long, rather than rolling them back to the house.

Alderman Tony Thomas, one of the chief proponents of the rental ordinance, wanted some mechanism in place to address poorly maintained property.

Blighted homes have been a problem in his southside district because they devalue surrounding properties and invite health and safety problems and crime issues, he said.

Thomas has asked city officials to tour the district with him and said he is growing especially concerned with parts of Middleground Road and Wilshire Boulevard that are falling into disrepair.

Action plan

Paradise Park, in District 4, is another area that is struggling to maintain its neighborhood.

It was the first housing subdivision targeted when the city's Property Maintenance Department began "blight blitzes" in February. The city put its 22 inspectors into one neighborhood to look for violations and to spur cleanup.

"These are important neighborhoods," Thomas said. "Let's use the tools and a little of the money we have now before it festers into a $10 million or $20 million problem."

Search a database of Blighted Houses as determined by the city of Savannah.

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